There is an interest in evaluating and predicting risks due to existing radiation exposure situations, such as radon inhalation or exposure to external terrestrial radiation, both indoors and outdoors – as the greatest contributors to annual effective dose coming from natural radiation sources. That is particularly related to radon exposure and an evaluation of its role in initiating lung cancer, although risk projections have serious limitations being affected by the other important agents contributing to the cancer risk. Cancer risk due to radon inhalation and terrestrial gamma radiation in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, is considered here together with available epidemiological data, showing that among different types of cancer diagnosed in Montenegro, lung cancer is among the most common ones. The previous analysis indicated that the lung cancer incidence rate increases from year to year, 6% annually in the period from 1978 to 2005, with an average standardized incidence rate of 20.8 per hundred thousand. The incidence rate of lung cancer in Podgorica in 2009 evaluated in the present study was found to be around 34.9. Diagnosed cancer types were non-small cell lung cancer in 37%, small cell lung cancer 22%, adenocarcinoma 17%, and mixed – adeno- and non-small cell 24%. Excess lifetime cancer risk due to terrestrial gamma radiation outdoors in the urban area of Podgorica (14 locations) is estimated to be in the range (10-3) from 0.17 to 0.69, with an average of 0.33, while the risk of lung cancer due to lifetime radon inhalation (153 homes in the region of the Podgorica municipality) – from 0.04 to 8.8%, with an average of 0.8% and median of 0.4%.

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